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Summary: Watch as an animal care specialist discusses the interaction between pet rats and other pets in this free online video about exotic pets.
Laura Fitzgerald has been an animal lover her entire life. Having her first pet rat at the age of 5 (after rescuing it from the snake food chain). Growing up on a 200 acre horse farm...read more
"Hi, my name is Laura Fitzgerald and on behalf of Expert Village, I would like to talk to you about the care and maintenance of your pet rat. Today I am going to tell you about rats and other pets in your home. I just would like to tell you that rats are very intelligent animals and that they react very well with other pets in your house. This is my dog Luke and my rat, Tar, and this is Lucy. Tar, Luke, and Lucy have grown up together since they were little. Tar is about eighteen months old and Lucy is about ten months old, and Luke here, he is my old boy, he is about ten years old. He has no problem interacting with the rat, they can crawl all over him and kiss him and take food right out of his mouth and he does not have a problem. Now I highly recommend not leaving your rats unsupervised with any of your pets in the house because you never know when accidents happen, in which the rat can get trapped some where or the rats can chew on electrical wire. But normally rats, if they grow up with other pets in the house, like Luke, they have no fear of him. He has never hurt them or upset them and they can groom him, cuddle up next to him, and play with him, and there is usually never any problem. I had Luke around them since they were teeny tiny little babies, they use to sleep on him, and he never has had a problem with them. Rats also enjoy being in colonies together, so it is good to have more than one rat together, so two rats or more are much happier and well adjusted than one rat, unless you have other pets that they can play with. I would like to show how my rats interact with my cat. I would also like to show you how my little kitty reacts with the rats. She has also grown up with them and usually does not have any problem with them. So I got her when she was a teeny tiny kitty out of the dumpster, and the rats socialize with her and never have a problem, they don't bite and she has never hurt them. But then she tolerates having them groom her and licking her. They chase each other around the house. Whoops, she has had enough of the rats. I highly do not recommend leaving them unsupervised but as friends while you are supervising them and playing with them, they should have no problem together, playing with your other pets in the house."
eHow Article: Pet Rat Interaction with Other Pets
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Comments
bhuk said
on 8/2/2008 She does caution several times not unsupervised and that they need to grow up together but I do not think as a practice a new rat owner should be looking forward to a pet commune interspecies. Rats do stalk and kill smaller pets (a frog and parakeet posting I recall) and though the traditonal cat/dog might grow up and or adapt to the rat animals are reactive creatures and something may happen where previous friends might do some not so friendly things or rough play to one another. Even with supervision a non animal expert might not see the cues that say intervene and an injury may occur. I do appreciate the videos as a message that rats are great pets but I do not think promoting them as great pets to play with your other pets is a selling point. Consider your audience as you would a client in the animal hospital you worked at that has never owned a pet previosly and has no experience with them at all. To that person you would not advocate mixing species until they are "experts" in the behavior.
tommyace said
on 2/28/2009 Im gonna introduce my rat 'Lemonade' to my snake, maybe they can become friends :-) I wont leave them unsupervised thou...or near eletrical wires...my snake needs cuddles :( BTW - I really wanna have a rat colony.. like..10 male rats and 30 female rats as friends..
This woman is 100% correct, she is a vet, plz respect her, and she does good, she saved her cat from a dumpster and the cat has befriended all her rats so don't be mean please!!!
ratlover said
on 8/2/2008 OMG this woman's videos are so full of incorrect information she could kill somebody's rat if they were to take her advice. Doesn't expertvillage check for accuracy when people upload videos. Check this out people http://ratguide.com/ It is a wonderful source of correct information for the care of rats.
bhuk said
on 8/2/2008 She does caution several times not unsupervised and that they need to grow up together but I do not think as a practice a new rat owner should be looking forward to a pet commune interspecies. Rats do stalk and kill smaller pets (a frog and parakeet posting I recall) and though the traditonal cat/dog might grow up and or adapt to the rat animals are reactive creatures and something may happen where previous friends might do some not so friendly things or rough play to one another. Even with supervision a non animal expert might not see the cues that say intervene and an injury may occur. I do appreciate the videos as a message that rats are great pets but I do not think promoting them as great pets to play with your other pets is a selling point. Consider your audience as you would a client in the animal hospital you worked at that has never owned a pet previosly and has no experience with them at all. To that person you would not advocate mixing species until they are "experts" in the behavior.